Pallet



July 23, 1968 R. M. GIACOBE PALLET Original Filed May 31, 1966 1.0ylllllllzlo //IIIIIIIIII//II1 I N VEN TOR. R/CHARD G/A CUB E Bylaw W 1//1 23 24 Mum-.-

// I l I I/I/I/{j/I/I/I/l United States Patent 3,393,646 PALLET RichardM. Giacobe, 92 Ramsey Ave., Keansburg, NJ. 07734 Substituted forabandoned application Ser. No. 554,062, May 31, 1966. This applicationFeb. 8, 1967, Ser. No.

3 Claims. (Cl. 108-52) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pallet forsupporting stacked sheets or articles for storage and also for transferby fork lift truck from place to place in which said pallet is formedfrom a single sheet of a light weight material and in which the sheet isformed with an upper platform, a pair of sides, inwardly turned legs oneither side with the ends of the legs turned upward to form uprightspaced supports adjacent the central portion of said pallet and in whichthe central supports are slightly shorter than the sides so that theplatform retaining stacked sheets of material will be pressed into aconcave form which tends to hold the stacked sheets and prevent slippingof the sheets to either side.

This is a substitute application for my previously filed applicationSer. No. 554,062, filed May 31, 1966, Richard M. Giacobe, inventor,title Pallet, application now abandoned.

This invention relates to pallets and in particular molded pallets.

Hitherto most of the pallets have been used for holding stacked sheetsand articles, not only during storage but also for transfer by fork lifttruck from place to place within a plant, also for shipment in flatcars, semi-trailers, and the like. These pallets are used in largequantities. The returning of the empty pallets requires storage. Thishas been a serious problem. One of the requirements for pallets is to beapproximately 4" in height in order to accommodate the 4" rollers on theends of the forks of the fork lift trucks used in handling the loadedpallets. Pallets have been molded from plastic impregnated paper orfabric in various shapes but have not been properly designed for heavyloading. With the improvement of the plastic materials such as thepolystyrene products and the resinous materials to stronger and heavierforms these materials, especially those turned out in sheet form thatmay be pressed under heat and reformed into desired shapes, lendthemselves to the manufacture of this type of pallet. Due to theenormous cost of producing pallets by the injection molding process itis preferable to utilize the plastic products already available in sheetform and in a desired thickness and weight that is moldable under heatas already described. It is also to be understood that fillers,pigments, lubricants, antioxidants, fiberglass, and any requiredingredient may be included. The heavier and tougher plastics may be usedfor strength and long life, however, the extremely light polystyrenesand foam material may be used for special uses where weight is a factorand a reasonable degree of strength and durability is sufficient. Inview of the changing conditions of the prior art, that is, the specificrequirements for clearance for pick up by the fork lift truck, thedesirability of lighter weight pallets and the desirability of utilizinga new formation of the top platform to assist in stacking and theimproved materials and process available for the manufacture of thesepallets are sufficient reason for the improvements defined in thisinvention and it is an object of this invention to incorporate some ofthese changes in a new pallet.

The plastic sheet may be fiat in form, or may be corrugated or ribbed asdesired to provide extra strength.

It is an object of my invention to provide a new and improved palletwhich is impervious to moisture and will endure and stand up under anyweather conditions.

Another object is to provide a new and improved molded pallet of thecharacter indicated, which is extremely strong.

Another object is to provide a new and improved molded pallet of thecharacter indicated, which retains any liquid drainage within saidpallet.

Yet another object is to provide a new and improved pallet that willassume a concave form in its supporting platform under load to assist inretaining stacked flat stock.

Other objects of this invention may be apparent by reference to theaccompanying detailed description and the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a pallet;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the pallet in a reverse position;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the pallet;

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIGURE 5 is a cross sectional view of the said pallet shown in acorrugated or ribbed form, and

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of block elements used in conjunctionwith FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings and particularly FIG. 1, there is illustratedpallet 10. The pallet 10 is formed from a single sheet of plasticmaterial which may be any of the above mentioned thermosetting plastics,that is, a plastic sheet that may be reformed under heat or pressure asillustrated in FIG. 1. The pallet 10 is in fact a sheet of plasticmaterial having an upper platform 11, a pair of sides 12 and 14 andinwardly turned legs 15 and 16 with the ends of the legs 15 and 16turned up Ward to form upright supports 17 and 18. It is to be notedthat the supports 17 and 18 do not extend to the under-surface ofplatform 11. The spacing between the upper edge of supports 17 and 18and the under surface of platform 11 may be extremely small such as Thusthe pallet 10 as illustrated in FIG. 1 is provided in a standard sizesuch as 3 wide by 3% long, however, the second form is also utilizedwherein the pallet is 3 wide by 7' long. It is to be noted that bothends of these pallets are open and the height of the platform for astandard pallet is 4", however, with some of the plastic pallets a 3height is sufficient with the ends open as illustrated the pallet iseasily picked up by a fork lift truck to be moved from place to place.It is noted that although the platform is perfectly flat in its normalunloaded form when this type of pallet is to be used for supportingstacked sheet material the weight of the material will cause theplatform 11 to be pressed into a concave form as illustrated in dottedlines, thus the concave form tends to hold the stacked sheets andprevent the slipping of the sheets to either side so often found withfiat topped pallets. In the event the pallet is to be used for carryingother type articles where the concave form is not desired, there isprovided a plurality of filler supports 20 as illustrated in FIG. 6 twoor more of these supports may be inserted under platform 11 resting onthe top of the uprights 17 and 18 thus retaining platform 11 perfectlyflat when so needed.

Referring to FIG. 2, pallet 10 is similar to the pallet 10 described inFIG. 1. However, in this embodiment the pallet is turned over lying in areversed position thus the platform 11 becomes the supporting base whilethe legs 15 and 16 provide a pair of parallel platforms for supportingarticles thereon. In this instance bar stock or elongated flat pieces ofstock may be laid side by side as illustrated and in this positiondeposited adjacent the device such as a lathe in a machine shop wherethe articles are to be worked upon. With stock on this reversible palletit is easy to either manually insert the hands under the stock throughthe center open area of the pallet for lifting the stock or with heaviermaterial it is easy to insert a chain or lifting cable around the stockthrough this open area to permit lifting the stock to its desiredposition upon the machine or wherever needed, thus pallet has many uses,and, of course, in either its upright position of FIG. 1 or its reverseposition of FIG. 2 it is easily picked up by a fork lift truck throughthe open areas within the legs and 16. It is also to be understood thatthe fiat sheet plastic illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be replaced withcorrugated or ribbed plastic sheets as shown in FIG. 5. This provides astronger platform or stronger base as the case may be.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a further embodiment of thepallet. In this instance the pallet 10A may be formed from a plasticsheet or may be an extruded plastic product. In either instance, as withthe plastic sheet it is formed with an upper platform 11A with sides 12Aand 14A and with a base 19 sealed to both sides thus forming a box likestructure. In addition the open ends shown after the formation of thisbox like structure, are to be covered with a plastic rectangular sheet22 and sealed to the plastic sheet forming the top, sides and bottom asdescribed. The ends 22 must be provided with pockets 22A that extendinto or through the box-like structure, this is to permit the pickupprongs of the fork lift trucks to extend into and under the platform,thus allowing the pallets to be picked up. In addition there areprovided a pair of uprights or supporting webs 23 and 24 sealed to orformed a a part of the plastic sheet to provide stiffening the length ofthe pallet, spaced in relation as shown. These supports 23 and 24 may besealed as a part of either the upper platform 11A or the lower base 19but not attached to both and the supports 23 and 24 may be slightlyshorter than the sides 12A and 14A, thus permitting the platform 11A tobe depressed when loading, this forms a concave shape as in FIG. 1 toassist in holding stacked articles, such as sheets to prevent them fromshifting. It is to be further noted that platform 11A may be perforatedin various patterns such as the pattern illustrated which is a pluralityof rectangular perforations, reducing the weight of the pallet whileretaining the desired strength of the pallet. With this type of enclosedtank-like pallet with a perforated top, various materials that areloaded with moisture or that are still draining may be stacked on thispallet and the drainage from the material on the pallet will go into thetank-like structure of the pallet. A drain plug 26 may be provided inthe lower portion of the pallet so that when the pallet is used in thisway after use it may be easily drained. It is to be noted that blockssuch as the blocks illustrated in FIG. 6 or shorter than thoseillustrated may be utilized to be positioned over the uprights 23, 24 orunder the uprights 23, 24, as the case may be to supply support toretain platform 11A in a level position under load where desired. Afurther embodiment of this invention would be similar to FIG. 3 exceptthat the platform 11A would not be perforated, thus the box-likestructure would be sealed air tight. This pallet would be light and ifused around the water it would be buoyant and could not be lostoverboard. The air within also provides a cushioning effect for thearticles carried on this type of pallet. Although plastic sheet palletsare preferable, providing a material that 'is not affected by moistureor by acid and is durable under most any condition. Other reasons forusing plastic material that is now tough enough and strong enough forthis type of use, is the ability to pigment the material to any desiredcolor even to a perfectly clear transparent pallet. However, with thepallet as designed they may also be constructed of metal where aparticular use requires metal such as handling of red hot articles fromthe furnace or in other metal working operations. Without departing fromthe spirit of this invention, this invention shall be limited only bythe appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A molded pallet, comprising a sheet of generally flat sheet materialthat is formed into a top platform, a pair of integral parallel sideWalls, a pair of integral inwardly turned and spaced bottoms to providea pair of supporting bases and a pair of integral upwardly turnedsupports that are parallel and in spaced relation, said platform andsaid bases being spaced apart sufiiciently to permit entry of the forkof a fork lift truck there between, said upwardly turned supports beingslightly shorter than said parallel side walls to permit said topplatform to deform from a normally flat posture to a concave shape underload.

2. In a pallet according to claim 1 in which said top platform deformsunder load to a concave shape and filler supports for levelling anyportion of said platform.

3. In a pallet according to claim 1 in which said pallet is reversed andsaid top platform becomes the supporting base and said spaced bottomsbecome spaced platforms.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,444,183 6/ 1948 Cahners 108563,000,603 9/1961 Hemann l0856 3,026,078 3/1962 Simkins 10856 3,079,8763/1963 Doane 108-56 3,192,099 6/1965 Beckman et al. 108-52 XR 3,251,3215/1966 Budd 108-54 3,267,882 8/1966 Rapson et a1 10851 3,302,593 2/1967Roberts 108-56 FOREIGN PATENTS 83 6,401 4/ 1952 Germany.

BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner.

G. O. FINCH, Assistant Examiner.

